Hi-

I was supposed to take a 1 1/2 week trip to Prague, Berlin and Vienna this week- given the horrible flooding, I'm glad I had to postpone.

However, I'm still thinking about using my last free Starwood nights labor day week in Vienna.

However, BA has no FF ticket availability from Vienna for the return.

So my question is: should I even consider taking the train from Vienna to Prague, just to catch a flight to London? Does it make sense logistically and financially? And, I know that the Prague subway is closed for weeks- does anyone know where I can get information on whether the "regular" trains are running normally?

Thanks!

(Of course, I'd love to visit Prague, but I know they need time to recover from what they've just been through....)

The Czech Railways has a web site at:

http://www.cdrail.cz/ENGLISH/default.html

I haven't checked, but I imagine that they have status information there.

cnk

Thanks for that!

The Vienna to Prague train is ok. It's short on amenitities and 4.5 hours long. They still use the individual cabins instead of the airplane seating style. The day we took it (a Wednesday afternoon in May), we had a cabin of six seats to ourselves.

The only thing is that when you get to Prague, you're not at the main train station. You're at an outlier station in the NE corner of town, and you have to take the subway line into the heart of the city. If you use the ATM machine, make sure you don't take out an even big multiple of currency, or you'll be like me trying to figure out how to break a 1000 kr. bill for a 12 kr. ride.....

There are four through express trains a day, and all have dining cars (short on amenities? European trains haven't had parlor cars since 1970 or so). Three of them go to the station on the edge of downtown, since they continue on/connect to trains to Germany, and one train terminates at the main Prague station. These trains have either open or compartment seating (or both), but it's inaccurate to say that they "still" have compartments, since the newest Austrian cars have only compartment seating.

From my son, who's touring with bike and tent: Milian, Vienna, Prague, Dresden. You can expect flooding in Berlin, as that's where he's headed now!

"Thursday, August 15, 2002 - Day 25
Train Prague to Dresden. The river route I planned is flooded - both bike routes and train. Many bridges are closed. I took a three trains winding through the moutains to Dresden, normally a direct 2.5 hour train became a 5.75 hour 3-train trip. Dresden is also quite wet and the Elbe river route is flooded, so I will go away from the river to Berlin. Uh oh, chance of more rain. Not getting to ride much these days!"

Thanks for the follow-ups- I've rescheduled a Vienna trip for labor day weekend, but it's still iffy if I'll able to make it at all.

Would leave for Prague anytime Sunday afternoon, depart for London at 1pm Monday.

Berlin (and a longer stay in Prague) will have to wait....

As mentioned the "Express" (4 1/2 hours) trains run a few times a day- leaving Vienna at 10-something am, ~2:30pm, and a later one (6pm, maybe?), assume the 4th is early a.m. (or overnight?).

Left from the Sudbonhof in Vienna. As mentioned, we were supposed to arrive at a secondary station in Prague (holsovice) but arrived at the main one because of the floods (don't think they were continuing North to Dresden/Berlin yet, though). That put me within walking distance of the Renaissance, so I didn't complain!

Train wasn't very full until the Brno-Prague segment. Was a fine trip, overall- cost was 40 Euros one way- although I was told that it's cheaper if you buy a ticket from Vienna to the Czech border and then another to Prague on the train.

[This message has been edited by landspeed (edited 09-07-2002).]